Flashlight
by TwistedKeysandSnare
Summary: 8 year old Mariana and 9 year old Callie learn that sharing a room doesn't have to be so bad. AU ONE-SHOT!


**Author's Note: Here's a little AU one-shot that I couldn't get out of my brain. It features a nine year old Callie and eight year old Mariana, who are struggling with sharing a room peacefully. Just to give you some context, Stef and Lena have been fostering Callie and Jude for about a year and are in the process of adopting them, so Callie feels pretty secure in the Adams Foster household. Mariana, on the other hand, is struggling with nightmares, as ghosts from her past keep haunting her even after her adoption.**

Stef walked downstairs and sunk into the couch next to her wife. "Girls are in bed, so are the boys."

"That's a relief. I thought we were never getting them to sleep tonight." Lena replied, flipping through channels on their TV, looking for something to watch.

"Thank you for finding Mariana's de-tangler. Our job would have been impossible if you hadn't." Stef said.

"Oh! That reminds me. Did you turn on the nightlight in the girls' room?" Lena asked. Stef nodded. "Did Callie put up much of a fight tonight? She hates that thing."

"Surprisingly, no. What are we going to do about that though? Callie needs the room to be pitch black to sleep and Mariana needs some kind of light." Stef said, turning to Lena.

"Yeah, well, we got them to agree on a little nightlight next to Mariana's bed. Who knows, maybe the problem will just fix itself." Lena hypothesized. Stef smiled, kissing her partner on the cheek. The couple relaxed in each other's arms as they treated themselves to a night of reruns and channel surfing.

Upstairs, Callie was shaken from her slumber by a bright beam of light. She groaned, squinting as she sat up from her bed.

"Mariana… what...?"

As Callie looked over at her sister, she was immediately angered by what she saw. In her lap, Mariana was holding a flashlight, the LED kind where the light cuts through the darkness like a polished sword.

"Gah… turn that thing off! I'm trying to sleep!" Callie yelled in a whisper.

"No! I need it to sleep!"

"You think you're the only one who needs to sleep?" Callie rebutted.

"I'll have nightmares!"

"Then deal with it. You're eight years old, stop acting like a little kid."

Mariana shined the light over at Callie again. "Hey!" Callie huffed, chucking a pillow from her bed at her sister. The pillow landed next to Mariana's bed, but did not hit its intended target. Callie, with her stubborn spirit, tried again with a new pillow, this time getting closer, but still not succeeding.

"Stop throwing things at me!" Mariana called.

"Turn off that light!" Callie said, throwing a teddy bear across the room, which hit the wall with a quiet thud.

With the TV on mute during a commercial break, the moms easily heard the object making contact with the wall.

"Can you do it or should I?" Lena asked, looking to Stef with a pleading glance. Stef gave her a mischievous grin and an eye roll before standing up and facing her wife. "It's fine, I got it." She said, turning to the stairs and climbing to the second floor. She listened it the hallway for any more sounds before hearing two feet smack against a hardwood floor and walked to the origin of the noise. As she approached the girls' door, she hear hushed arguing and opened the door to find Callie a few steps from Mariana's bed, pillow in hand, ready to attack.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on here?" Stef demanded, before swiftly pacing over to Callie and ripping the pillow from her grasp. "Give me this." She studied the floor, noting the numerous pillows and stuffed animals from Callie's bed littering the room. "I see you tried throwing pillows at your sister a few times before this one. Did any of those attempts fix your problem?"

"Well, I didn't hit her…" Callie trailed off.

"Enough!" Stef said. "Go sit on your bed."

Stef turned to Mariana.

"Now what's going on? Why do you have a flashlight? Your nightlight is set up right there, we plugged it in together." Stef asked, crossing her arms.

"I couldn't see that wall, or the wall near Callie's bed." Mariana answered, looking down at her lap.

"So you decide to wake me up by shining a light in my eye?" Callie asked from her perch on the bed, annoyed by this entire situation.

"Hey, you. Quiet." Stef said sharply, turning her attention back to Mariana.

"I wasn't trying to wake or bother you, Callie." Mariana mumbled. "I was just scared 'cause the room was so dark."

Callie looked down, completely out of mean comments.

"Well what's so scary about the dark anyway? You know there's no such thing as monsters, except maybe Jude when he eats too much sugar…" Stef said, both her daughters cracking a smile at her words.

"I think the dark is cozy… you can curl up in your blankets and drift off to sleep. Plus, you have me, and Mama, and Callie, and Jesus and Jude, and Brandon, and we're all in this house, your house, together." Stef continued.

"Yeah, you got me!" Callie piped up. "I'm your big sister. I'll protect you from anything that dares enter our room! It's my job. Plus, you can always crawl in my bed if you feel scared during the night. I don't mind." Callie said proudly.

Mariana smiled.

"I think it's settled then. Let's get you two some water so you can relax and finally get some sleep. Why don't you help me, Cal?" Stef said, waiting as her daughter hopped off her bed and followed her down the stairs.

Stef looked over at Callie as they stood by the sink, filling up water glasses. Callie met her mother's eyes, but darted them down just as quickly. She knew that look. Stef wanted to talk.

"I… uh… I'm sorry for throwing those pillows at Mariana. I… I know it was a mean thing to do and all… It was just… really annoying." Callie admitted.

"That's not actually what I wanted to talk about." Stef said, setting one of the glasses down on the counter.

"It's not? What is it, then?" Callie asked, confused.

"I just think it was very sweet, what you said to Mariana. You're an amazing big sister, sweetheart."

Callie blushed.

"But since you brought it up… don't you ever throw something in this house again, you hear me? I mean it, Cal. You are the big sister and I expect you to handle things in a mature and civil way, yes? And if you try and that doesn't work, you get Mama and me and we will handle it. You got it?" Stef asked sternly, before wrapping Callie in a hug. She felt her girl nod in the embrace and she pressed a kiss to the top of Callie's head.

"You're my world, babe. I love you so much." Stef said, pulling Callie to her side.

"I love you too." Callie said, looking up at Stef with her big brown eyes.

"Alright then, kid. Let's get these waters up to your room and get you off to bed." Stef said, leading Callie up the stairs before bidding her girls goodnight and joining her wife on the couch again.

"How are the kids? Did you get them calmed down?" Lena asked, resting her feet on Stef's lap.

"Yes, I did. You know, those pesky kids can be little devils sometimes, but I wouldn't trade them for the world." Stef said with a smile on her face.

"Oh, I do know. I feel the same way about you sometimes." Lena said with a giggle. The moms laughed and indulged in their mutual comfort, grateful for every moment they shared with their perfect family.


End file.
